Author: Shmee

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Bohemia’s New Game Argo Is Free!

Do you like playing video games, but hate paying for them?  Well Bohemia Interactive of Arma fame has a deal for you!  Its new game Argo is completely free!  That’s right you can play the full game without spending a dime.  The question is do you want to?  I would say it is a definite maybe.

Argo takes a lot of what Arma does and simplifies it to a five on five format, so it is like Arma and Counter Strike had a baby.  I am not sure it is as good as either of those games, but it is fun.  I also like the more realistic weapon damage because if you shoot someone they die.  They don’t spin around and then kill you.  You also get to customize your trooper any way you want, and the more you play, the more guns and customizations you get.  For $10 you can jumpstart all that with the “Developer Support Pack”.

Anyway.  It is not my favorite game, and I am not sure I will play it a lot, but for free it is sure to become a LAN party favorite.  A word to the wise though, start off playing Argo on the “easy” servers because like all Arma games, friendly fire is on, and if “easy” is turned off the game turns off the player team identification, so it seems like half the game is being shot in the back by your own team.  Which is not fun.  If you have a decent PC, and you like military first person shooters, Argo is worth the download since bandwidth is all it will cost you.

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Shmee Knows The Secret To Making A Shared Cinematic Universe!

We live in a post Marvel Studios world were everyone wants to build a shared universe.  So far only Marvel is really succeeding, but everyone else is trying.  Though the Warner Brothers MonsterVerse is starting to pick up, and after Wonder Woman’s astonishing success there is hope for the DCEU.  Meanwhile Universal’s Dark Universe is dying for the second time.  So to all you movie executives out there that want to make that sweet, sweet shared universe cash, I will tell you how to do it: MAKE GOOD MOVIES.

Why is the MonsterVerse taking off?  Godzilla and Skull Island turned out to be pretty good.  Marvel movies? For the most part, good.  The struggling DCEU? For the most part, not good.  Then Wonder Woman came along and was awesome, so now people are excited to see her again in Justice League.  Know who we don’t want to see again? A kind of evil and bland Tom Cruise, who is not the Mummy, but more of a reincarnated evil god who killed the Mummy, and thus the Dark Universe no longer has an iconic character.  Instead it has a jerky god-ish Tom Cruise.

There you have it.  Focus on making good films, and for the most part people will watch them.  Especially if you have that major movie studio marketing power.  Do no make movies that are advertisements for future movies.  If you want to included a few Easter Eggs that is fine, but focus on the story at hand, not the story three movies from now.  Believe it or not we don’t care that much if it doesn’t hang together that well.  It will just give us something to talk about later.  So get out there and make those cool flicks!

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Shmee Sets Sail On The Verdurous With Gargantia!

I have been jonesing for some anime, so I fired up ‘Gagantia on the Verdurous Planet’ on Netflix.  For the most part it had what I wanted: mecha, evil squid, and a post apocalyptic world filled with massive boats.  Pretty much Gargantia is the anime equivalent to Water World, but much more watchable.  Not great, but it did the trick for my neglected anime habit.

In the future the human race has left Earth and is at war for its survival against the strange squid like creatures the  Hideauze.  That is until one day a Machine Caliber (the show’s name for mechs) pilot, Ensign Ledo, is sucked through a wormhole and deposited on Earth, a planet he was told had been destroyed.  The world has gone through some changes, and it is now covered in water, so people live in massive flotillas and dredge up stuff from the ocean’s floor.  It is a difficult yet peaceful life, and not one Ledo is sure he can get used to.

‘Gagantia on the Verdurous Planet’ has all the usual stuff: a random fan service episode, questions about humanity, and teenagers taking on responsibilities that they shouldn’t, but it was still well made and engaging.  As a matter of fact I blew through it in a couple of days.  I wish there was another season or two.  Mecha Water World is just the sort of thing this anime freak is down with.

Now if you are looking for an anime that changes things up and pushes the boundaries of the medium, you will be disappointed.  Gargantia is an above average standard anime tale, but that was enough for me, and one that I think a lot of anime fans like myself would enjoy.  Plus it is on Netflix.  In other words, if you like anime give ‘Gagantia on the Verdurous Planet’ a shot, if you are burned out on anime, or just don’t like it, you can skip it.  Nothing new to see here.

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With Season Two Master Of None Has Hit Its Stride!

I never thought that Aziz Ansari would have one of the best shows on TV, but here we are.  Season two of his Netflix hit Master of None is charming, poignant, and most important of all funny.  This season delves more in to what it is like to be single in this digital age while continuing to shed light on what it is like to be a minority in the United States.  Two things I cannot identify with, but this show portrays all of this in its signature mater of fact fashion while remembering it is comedy.

Master of None picks up after the first season with Dev in Italy learning to make pasta in a local shop.  He is clearly having the time of his life, but soon he will have to go back and try once again to establish his career in New York City.  The idyllic setting of the small Italian town is a great juxtaposition for the large and uncaring NYC.

If you still haven’t watched this show after my review of Master of None’s first season, I hope you will after this review of its second.  Master of None is a turning in to a masterclass for sitcoms.  We will see how long Aziz and Co. can keep this up, but I will be watching every episode that they release.  This was kind of a short write up, but it didn’t need to be long to tell you that Master of None is really, realty good.

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Hitman Developer IO Interactive Is Now Independent!

Square-Enix announced a while ago that they were trying to sell off IO Interactive in order to recoup the losses that the studio generated.  It was a sad tale for a studio that created one of last year’s best games.  However, this morning things got a lot rosier.  IO Interactive posted a letter on its website stating that the developer was now independent, and that it retained all rights to the Hitman franchise!

This is awesome news!  Season One of Hitman was great, and I hope they are able to get to work quickly on Season Two or Hitman’s follow up.  I will be here cash in hand.  Good luck newly independent IO Interactive!  We are pulling for you!